Simpson hired Todd Cranney, Romney’s national deputy political director, and Travis Hawkes, who served as Idaho finance chair for the Romney campaign, according to the Idaho Statesman.

An ally of Speaker John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, Simpson has come under criticism from some conservatives. Simpson’s primary challenger has received an endorsement from the Club for Growth.

The eight-term Republican also tapped Brody Aston as his campaign manager. Aston previously worked on the campaign for Rep. Raúl R. Labrador, R-Idaho, a favorite of the tea party.

“I’m extremely proud of the team we’ve put in place for the 2014 election cycle,” Simpson said in a release. “Each member is an expert in their respective areas and will be critical to ensuring we’re effectively communicating my conservative record and pro-growth agenda to Idaho voters.”

Idaho’s 2nd District is rated a Safe Republican contest by Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call. Romney received 64 percent of the vote in the district in 2012.

More from At the Races

Senator Simpson,
Be wary of who you trust with your re-election campaign, Sir. While most Republican consultants would disagree with my analysis, you as well as the rest of the incumbent Republicans need to know the main cause of Mitt Romney losing the last Presidential election… he lost his base as a result of listening to his paid consultants. Independents are Independents… they’re going to vote which every way the wind blows. Without your base coming out to vote and support you, the Independent vote is irrelevant to your cause.

As to the rest of our Senators in DC, your voting base does not support Amnesty. We do not believe our ‘immigration system’ is broken. We believe we have a border security issue and our government is refusing to enforce laws that are already on the books. The same can be said for ‘gun control’ and ‘bailouts’.

We have gun laws on the books sufficient to deal with the small percentage of the population who shouldn’t have one (that being someone who would commit a crime using a gun). The cities with the highest gun crime rate are the cities with the toughest regulation on owning guns. Criminals don’t follow the law by definition… you can’t legislate at criminals, they don’t care.

Bailouts…. I don’t even know where to begin with this. We have bankruptcy laws on the books as well… no one is too big to fail. It is not the Federal Government’s job to influence the free market system, whether through excessive regulation or by giving subsidies and bailouts to companies the current ‘administration in power’ believe SHOULD succeed. The market can’t function if people can’t fail. Bankrupt companies get bought out by other companies… thus the Twinkie being a perfect example.

In our founding documents it is acknowledged that ‘all men are created equal in the eyes of their creator, and endowed with certain unalienable rights…” We have a portion of the elected majority in power that believe it is the government’s job to insure that all men ARE equal and life is fair, and that fairness of life is a right. That is the first step on the road to socialism, and we all know the successful socialist countries who have survived over 200 years with that system in place… Oh wait… there isn’t one.

To keep this short, your best chance at re-election is keeping the voting base that got you elected in the first place happy. That’s honestly pretty easy. Do what you say you’re going to do when you run, and actually do those things after being elected. While some might say this is ‘common sense’, that seems to have become an oxymoron in today’s time. Your base isn’t seeking compromise with the Democrats. They’re not seeking an alternative plan to everything the Democrats propose legislatively or policy wise. They want a representative who will defend their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. They also want a government that does its job, only does its job, and leaves the states and local governments to actually do their jobs.

Forgive my thesis, but true representative’s in DC are scarce now a days. It would be well for all of our elected officials to remember that their ultimate employer is the citizen who chooses to exercise their right to vote, protected by proof of citizenship to vote.